Kalanithi Maran

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court today quashed two criminal intimidation cases against media baron and SUN TV Chairman Kalanithi Maran and three others. Quashing the cases registered by the Central Crime Branch police on two complaints, Justice A Arumughaswamy held "I am of the view that there is no proof or truth in the complaints. " Complainant Sakthi Chidambaram, a film distributor, had alleged that he was intimidated by the accused over a business deal for a Tamil...

CHENNAI: Regional language broadcaster Sun TV Network on Friday denied media reports which said Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries was eyeing a takeover of Sun TV. A media website quoting sources reported that senior RIL officials were in Chennai to work out a deal with Kalanithi Maran , chairman of Sun TV Network. "There is absolutely no truth in the news report that Sun TV is considering a stake sale," S L Narayanan, group CFO of Sun Group ...

Billionaire media baron Kalanithi Maran is close to sealing a deal to acquire Star Aviation for over Rs 1,000 crore, launching himself into a struggling industry by buying an airline that is yet to start operations. Mr Maran, who runs the Sun Network with interests in television, radio and newspapers, is buying the regional carrier in his personal capacity, persons close to the development said. Other terms of the deal and how it will be funded are not known. Top executives...

Kalanithi Maran , owner of the Sun TV empire, stunned the aviation sector by beating out well-known names in Corporate India to emerge victorious in the race to buy SpiceJet. Mr Maran, whose Sun Network is one of the dominant names in the Indian television entertainment scene, has no experience in aviation. Nor has he partnered with somebody in the aviation business to do the deal. In this interview with ET, he explains...

NEW DELHI: Former Telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran today filed separate petitions challenging the jurisdiction of special 2G court to try the Aircel-Maxis deal case in which they have been summand as accused along with others. Special CBI judge O P Saini issued notice to the CBI seeking their response on the pleas field by the Maran brothers on August 3. During the hearing, the CBI also filed their response on the bail pleas filed by...

The first thing that you see when you walk into the Gurgaon office of SpiceJet is a three-foot T20 cricket trophy won by the employees' cricket team. Incidentally, the man at the helm of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh was the cricket captain of St Columba's School, Delhi (where actor Shah Rukh Khan kept wickets). Back then, there was no T20 format. Since Singh's cricketing days at school, when he was a number four batsman, the game has become faster, pitches have changed dramatically and the competition...

NEW DELHI: Chennai-based media baron Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network is in preliminary talks with the Wadias to acquire low cost carrier GoAir, a source privy to the matter told ET Now. Go Air purchase will give Maran a 20% share in the market and a 60% share in the budget carrier market. Officials from both the companies did not comment on the story. Sources say that Maran is eyeing GoAir for the Mumbai and Delhi airport slots. Capacity constraint at...

MUMBAI: Budget carrier SpiceJet has raised Rs 54.27 crore through issue of warrants to promoter KalanithiMaran . "... the company has allotted 15,000,000 warrants, having option to apply for and be allotted equivalent number of equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 26.18 to promoter Kalanithi Maran on preferential basis," SpiceJet said in a filing to the BSE today. According to a separate...

CHENNAI: Media baron Kalanithi Maran has moved the Madras High Court seeking quashing of an FIR registered against him by city police on a complaint by an Andhra Pradesh-based businessman who claimed he had been cheated to the tune of more than Rs one crore. When the Criminal Original Petition of Maran, Chairman of Sun Group, came up for hearing today, Justice K B K Vasuki directed Additional Public Prosecutor to get instructions from respondents and posted it to...

MUMBAI: SpiceJet promoter media baron Kalanithi Maran is pumping Rs 100 crore into the budget airline SpiceJet through a preferential offer of shares. In a statement to stock exchanges on Friday, SpiceJet said it will issue 4.29-crore preference shares to promoter Kalanithi Maran. Shareholder approval for the move will be taken through a postal ballot, the statement added. As a result of this issuance of share capital, promoter holding will go up to 48.6% from the...

NEW DELHI: Shares of SpiceJet surged over 4% on Saturday after promoter of the company, Kalanithi Maran said that he would pump Rs 100 crore into the airline by picking up an additional 5 percent equity. "The fund infusion by billionaire Maran comes in sharp contrast to cash-starved Kingfisher Airlines which has been unable to raise fresh funds for a host of reasons, compounded by a massive debt burden," said a PTI report. The airline enjoys...

NEW DELHI: Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran today appeared as accused before a special 2G court in connection with the Aircel-Maxis deal case. The Maran brothers appeared before Special CBI Judge O P Saini in pursuance to the summons issued against them and moved their separate bail pleas on which the court asked CBI to respond on March 16. "Put up for reply on bail application on March 16... " the court said. During...

NEW DELHI: SpiceJet's new promoter Ajay Singh now holds over 60 per cent stake in the carrier after buying former promoter Marans' entire stake. Singh, who co-founded the airline some years back, snapped up 58.46 per cent stake from Marans as part of a revival plan that would also see Rs 1,500 crore capital infusion into the airline. According to a regulatory filing made by SpiceJet, Singh holds more than 36.15 crore shares or 60.31 per cent stake in the carrier. ...

MUMBAI: Shares of SpiceJet today settled for the day with gains of over 3.31 per cent, thereby adding Rs 47 crore to its market capitalisation after Ajay Singh became the new promoter of the company. During the day, the stock had surged 6.41 per cent to touch a 52-week high of Rs 25.70 on the BSE. The stock lost some ground and was trading at Rs 24.95, up 3.31 per cent over its previous closing price at the end of today's trade. Accordingly, the market...

MUMBAI: Low fare carrier SpiceJet's chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor Monday wrote to his staff giving them a morale-boost, days ahead of its formal change of ownership to former promoter Ajay Singh . "With the change of ownership and the return of Ajay as promoter, we need to take it (service and operational levels) up a few levels...the bounce is coming back to our feet, but we need it to come back even stronger," he wrote in an email. The pep talk comes a...

NEW DELHI: Completing its ownership transfer, SpiceJet today said Ajay Singh has become the promoter after acquiring the entire 58.46 per cent stake from the Marans. Singh, the original promoter of SpiceJet, is now back at the helm as part of a revival plan that would also be seeing a capital infusion of Rs 1,500 crore into the low-cost carrier. Shares of the airline rose over one per cent to Rs 24.35 on the BSE in early morning trade....

CHENNAI: Kalanithi Maran's KAL Airways Private Ltd has released about 1.06 crore shares, out of a total 9.16 crore, of Spicejet Ltd it pledged with financial institutions, according to a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange Wednesday. The pledge release comes at a time when the prospects for the aviation business are looking up, with the government opening up the sector to foreign investment and Spicejet turning profitable in the first quarter. Maran owns...

MUMBAI: No-frills airline SpiceJet today said its shareholders have approved promoter Kalanithi Maran picking up an additional 5 per cent equity by infusing about Rs 100 crore in the company. The move will take the overall holding of promoters in the airline to 48.6 per cent. SpiceJet informed BSE that shareholders have approved the allotment of up to 42,900,000 equity shares to Maran on a preferential basis. The...

NEW DELHI: Budget carrier SpiceJet today put one lakh seats up for grabs on both its domestic and international routes as it rolled out another discount sale offer with tickets priced as low as Rs 1,699 for travel within the country. The latest offer -- of all-inclusive fares as low as Rs 1,699 for flights across its domestic network and Rs 3,799 for international routes with a three-day booking window -- comes a day after SpiceJet's ownership went back to its original...

NEW DELHI: Troubled low-cost airline SpiceJet, under its new promoter Ajay Singh, is working to sharply reduce the number of vice presidents to five from 20 as it seeks to rationalise staff. "The new management sees a lot of excess at the top level and is looking at ways to cut it down. In the top-level management, we may see a huge cut in the number of vice presidents to five. The management is still working out ways to make that happen," said a...